Vincenzo Landino on Apple's Formula 1 ecosystem strategy: IMAX races, Netflix collab, and Vision Pro potential

Anyway, we have our next guest.

We do.

Uh is it Doug Jro?

No. Oh,

Vincenzo. Oh, Vento's coming on. Fantastic. Amazing.

Good to see you, Venzo. How you doing?

What's happening?

Sorry. Sorry to disappoint you. I'm at Doug.

Doug's coming on a little bit, but I'm glad. Uh, we we had some We had some guests step out. What's going Did you press it twice?

They made it

Oh, they made it play again and again and again. Okay. Well, we're just going We're going to keep going on this. Can you fade this down? Okay, there we go. Uh,

it goes on and on and on and on.

Yeah. And and typically if you push the button again, you turn it off. But we changed it so that if you push the button twice, it actually plays it twice. So you can do like but it gets to be a little much. So overkill, right?

Overkill. Anyway, uh take us through uh your your I I'd love to start with like the preview of the F1 season, but also just uh Apple's strategy because I think you unpacked it way at a way deeper level than uh what I'd seen folks understanding about Apple's F1 strategy before.

Yeah, I uh I'll start with the Apple stuff then. Um really I think

you know what Apple's done is they've said we may not have the distribution that ESPN, others have. Yeah. Traditionally,

and uh but we're going to use our might, which is

these.

Yeah.

They've got they've got these devices in everybody's hands. We're all using MacBooks. We're all We've all got iPads and we've got

AirPods and Apple watches and so

and John's got his Vision Pro.

I do have Vision Pro.

There you go. I wish last man standing.

I think I think something will be coming with that. I I do.

Yeah. They are they're rolling all this stuff out and now we're seeing like when did you ever think that Apple and Netflix would ever find a way to work together on a streaming cross collab? I don't know if you guys saw that news but

you're we're going to get to see actually Driver to Survivor is already streaming on uh Apple TV and in return Netflix is going to be streaming one of the races.

Oh that's cool.

Yeah. Ironically, ironically, it is the Canadian Grand Prix.

Why the Canadian Grand Prix, you might ask? Well, the Canadian Grand Prix takes place the same weekend that the Indy500 takes place, which is the most watched motorsport event.

Okay.

In America.

Okay.

Maybe even Well, not the world, but in America, it will have the best numbers of the year.

Yeah.

So, Apple knows this. What do they do? They go and partner with Netflix. Everybody has Netflix, right? I the IMAX theaters. They're trying to change the experience. How do you watch

Yeah.

race? Five races are going to be shown in IMAX theaters.

Yeah.

That's pretty cool.

Yeah.

Um they also partnered up with Event Pass, so bars, restaurants.

It'll It's where they buy a lot of their um their sports packages from through Event Pass. They're rolled into there. They've also they've also unleashed MLS on that. finally are realizing that the MLS thing wasn't working, right?

Mhm.

Uh so yeah, so now they're doing that with Formula 1. So now Formula 1's going to be able to be in bars and restaurants. You're going to see Formula 1 in IMAX theaters. Again, only

go to the bar 7 a.m.

I mean, that's that that might be the issue with some of the races. So, we'll see what happens there. But

I think the fact that they're open to these different types of distribution channels and platforms is it's exciting. It really is exciting.

Have you guys had a chance to play around with

uh Yeah. Yeah. React to my thesis that like the way Apple sees onboarding a fan to an actual live watching sport experience starts with the F1 movie, which when you watch that movie, you don't need to know anything about F1. And you'll hear the voice over of the narrator basically explain all the rules to you. And then they show Brad Pitt doing all these like tricky moves that illustrate why pit stops matter and why tires matter damage all these things. And so you can watch the F1 movie just because you like Brad Pitt and it's a fun movie. Then you can go into Drive to Survive. It's the reality TV version. You don't really have to follow a full race. You get all the drama and the personality and it's a travel show, too. And it's a lifestyle show. And then once you've gone down that funnel, then you're ready to watch the race and they have that for you, too.

And and even the way they're laying it out, if you guys haven't had a chance to look through the, you know, the Apple TV

app,

they're putting everything there. So now you have their local their guides, like their city guides. They've put together guides for the cities that you're in. So you can explore Melbourne now. That's where they are. Yeah.

In Apple Maps, you can explore the track turn by turn. you can, which again, some people might not care about that, but it's a way to pull you in if you are there in Melbourne. Yeah. And you're using Apple.

I think I actually noticed that that map feature.

I use Apple Maps like a psycho apparently. Uh, but I was in Las Vegas at the Las Vegas Grand Prix and I just happened to open Apple Maps just to get out of the stadium and figure out where we were going and I was like, "Wow, this is a really detailed rendering of the track. This is amazing. This is would actually be useful for a bunch of other things. And if you're just driving by and then you just see this really high fidelity 3D rendering of the of the map, it's just another touch point. It's basically just an ad.

What do you think they'll do with Vision Pro? Like what are your theories? You think you'll be able to ride along with Versappen and like actually get to exper because if you could experience a full race like in

the cameras are I think too heavy for that. But I want to hear what

I know, but not if you add it to every single car

and everybody lap times go way. I don't know if

I don't know if Ben can pull it up or if one of the guys can pull this up, but I posted something recently about an app called Laps Lapz. Now, they got kind of they were in test flight. They ended up getting pulled like they they can't keep pushing out

and it has to do with licensing rights from F1, but this is what I think

can happen and what they can do with Apple Vision Pro. In fact, I really think Apple I should have I thought they should have bought Laps, the the company that built it, the developer that built it. But if they didn't, I I could foresee them just kind of building this on their own. I mean, you've got you can have all the cameras up. You have a three-dimensional track with like live timing because all we have all the data, right? All the data is there. So, being able to put your vision pro on and be in camera with any of the drivers that you want, plus seeing a live circuit map. And then I believe they were also able to change the like the angle from where you were watching it from. So, you were able to understand really uh like if I'm sitting in I don't know, turn one, I'm watching it from that angle, right, through the Vision Pro as opposed to, you know, when you kind of put it on the TV, you don't really you may not know if you're not familiar with the track. uh you know, you don't know which angle you're really watching it from. This was a this app was really really cool. Um and I know one of the developers that was working on it.

That was like to me that showed the true power of it. Every time I post it, people are like that I would buy Vision Pro if I could get that app.

Yeah. About a year ago, we had uh a sort of motion designer on the show at Figma uh conference uh named John Leapour. He works at Blackbox

Infinet. That's him. John's the guy who built laps. Oh, okay. It's lapsed now because I remember seeing the demo. I pulled I put the demo in the uh in the chat. Hopefully the team can pull it up. But uh they did this uh they did this case study back in 2024 and I was like, "Oh, this is like a killer app. I wonder when Apple will like actually adopt this. Here it goes." Um and so this just makes so much sense that you could like put this on. And now that Apple actually has all the rights to this stuff, uh it seems like such an interesting experience. I wonder if this is uh one of those situations where you it looks really good in a teaser trailer, but then actually sitting there is maybe a little bit much. But um

everyone that actually used Laps said it was fantastic.

Yeah,

everyone I've talked to that used it said this was like incredible. Um and again, I don't have a Vision Pro, so I never really I didn't test it. I saw some demo stuff. John has sent me some things.

You got to try it this weekend, John.

Oh, yeah. If you can get if you can somehow get a hold of it, if you have it, I would

Yeah, I have a Vision Pro. I think I have Apple TV Plus and all the all the tiers there. Um I I probably just have to download the laptop.

All right, let's get into the season overall. What's what's happening with the new regulations,

how who's cooked, who's chopped, who's goated.

Well, so I think on the last time I was on the show and I was thinking about this too. I was like, "Oh man, I'm going to really eat a lot of crow now." I said Aston Martin was to look out to was someone to pay attention to and it was for all the wrong reasons.

Uh they seem to have completely botched the project.

I don't even know what's going on with Honda. I mean it it seems like one of those things that I thought was unfathomable in 2026. Like this was not something that was supposed to really be possible. The engineers have, you know, figured out reliability. We have cars that are so reliable. Everyone's finishing races now. This wasn't the case 30, 40 years ago, right? you'd have a lot of reliability issues. And now it like they've literally built a car that is quite literally crap. I mean, it's it's it is not good. Uh Fernando Allonzo still hasn't run any practice laps. Although maybe in practice, too, he ended up getting out there, I think. But they're not turning any laps. They're actually talking about like potential nerve damage these guys in the Aston Martin because of whatever is going on with the battery. It's It's wild. So,

what do you mean going on with the going on with the battery? are they they

they're so so because of the new um the new chass like the the new regulations the car is smaller it's narrower

and because of the way Adrienne Newui designs his cars it require there's a lot of aerodynamics so he kind of almost built a smaller

uh there's less room in his car to build you know for power unit and battery and all that stuff. Well, now with this like 50/50 split, you have 50/50 or 50% battery power and essentially 50% from the internal combustion engine, uh, all of that power or all of that takes up a lot of room and apparently there's not enough room in the in the Honda for all of that to properly like they're not even running the battery or they're not running the everything at full bore right now. It's like they couldn't even turn the battery up. It it's it's pretty wild. Like I'm reading all this stuff. All of this information is coming at me and I'm like, how does this even happen? The greatest designer of probably our generation, if not ever. And then there was other talk that like Aston Martin hadn't even really ever audited the Honda engineers. So, they signed the deal back in 22 or 23 that they were going to switch from Mercedes to Honda, but never audited the actual engineering. And

come to find out, most of like the good engineers ended up at Red Bull, which a lot of people speculated was the case because they Red Bull was with Honda. So, it's it's a whole mess right there with that Aston Martin project right now. Um, and of course, Aston Martin just signed over a naming deal for I forgot how much money it was, 60 plus million dollars that for the F1 team. So, I'm like, oo, that's not a good that's not great. But aside from that, uh, you've got Mercedes looking really.

So, what's your what's your prediction for Sunday? Do you do you think they do you think they actually finish the race or is it looking so bad that they

I don't know that they start the race? I I mean, they may start the race, turn a couple laps just to do it, but I don't I can't foresee them I in qualifying tonight. Like I I I can't even see them getting anywhere near like remotely close to the times we're going to see on the board. Uh I think they were something like 12 seconds back at one point during practice, which it's only practice, but I I don't even think I don't think they will finish the race. If they do start it, it'll be like a couple laps and then they're they're going to purposely pull it, you know, uh pit it and pull it from the race.

What is Mr. Stroll doing about it? I have no clue. I really don't. There it's a lot there's a lot of PR notices that there's a lot of PR that they're, you know, pulling right now and they're apologizing like which again I don't know what apologies are going to do at this point but um I if I'm sponsors I'm really pissed to be quite frank with you. Um I don't know I don't I don't know what I don't know what Lawrence is doing. who who is uh benefiting from the new regulations or is uh kind of figured it out the best so far.

It's so it seems uh it seems like Ferrari is doing again I I I can't jinx them so I have to like I I got a little jinx thing going here but the Ferrari looks really good. Um the Mercedes as well. So they both have come out looking solid. Uh Ferrari's been really reliable. They haven't seemed to have had any of the issues that others have had with the turbo spool, which was um something they were concerned about uh as early as last season or maybe even two seasons ago. They had talked about uh the turbo lag and they don't seem to have that problem. They've gone with a smaller turbo charger uh which spools up faster. So like they seem to be good with that. The Mercedes looks really really quick um fast on the straights. I don't think that they were d-tuned after their everyone was complaining about their engines, those those seem to be good. So, anyone with a Mercedes power unit seems to be in good shape, but the Mercedes Patronis AMG F1 team, they also just look great. George Russell, personally, I think George Russell, this might be his year.

Um, and the package looks really, really good. The car looks great. Like, they're not having any issues. Um, uh, McLaren, they're McLaren, so they they, you know, they won the championship last year. They also have Mercedes power unit. They seem to be okay in an okay spot. We'll see what happens when they start they ended up, I think, in the second practice, they ended up topping the time. Uh, but again, it's practice, so we'll see what happens when they turn up the engines for qualifying, I think, pretty much. And then Red Bull. Red Bull. Let's talk about Red Bull with the Ford power uh Red Bull Ford power unit. Those are impressive. We A lot of people thought like they may not be that good, especially during the testing in in Bahrain. They were like, h they don't look or sound that great. Now they came to Melbourne, seem to be working pretty well. Max looks hooked up. They have a second driver now, Hajar, young kid. Uh his second season, Formula 1. just brought him up from uh the junior team racing bulls. He's looking really good. So, I would say we're gonna for me it's a Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull trio at the top and McLaren I think they're going to be maybe looking out of the top three but uh yeah I to me it's a George Russell, Oscar Pastry, uh Max Verstoppen. Those are the three guys that I am putting my maybe not money into, but those are the guys I'm putting I'm putting my bets on. If I'm anyone else out there,

are there any brands that you're tracking that could make a major move into sort of a

premier sponsorship position of an F1 team? We were sort of joking about the idea of like an all-white F1 car sponsored by Apple. Obviously, Apple Formula One team.

The Apple Formula One team would be very cool.

That would be so cool.

But they sort of are broadcasting the whole league. They're indexing it. It doesn't really make sense, but a lot of tech companies have moved in. Uh Oracle, Google with Chrome and Gemini. There's, you know, all sorts of deals that are happening. There's a lot of money flowing around. I'm wondering if there's anyone that you think might like really go all in.

Really, it's not something I've been thinking about. Um,

you know, fintech seems to be pretty popular right now.

Yeah.

Um,

let's get a ramp yellow car out there. That'd be good.

They'd be really cool to see that.

Yeah. Ram Cadillac.

Cadillac could use it. Cadillac could definitely use

Have they filled out their sponsorships or they're still putting it together?

No, I think they're still putting it together. They may actually be This might be part of the strategy. I haven't talked to anybody over there. I think TWWG has put a lot of money in, so they have their name all over it. They uh the TWWG AI is their AI partner and TWWG is also part of the is ownership group. So they're on the car in like kind of two different ways. Uh but this is also what TWWG does across of all of their motorsport assets. Like their brand is, you know, uh front and center. Um, I haven't seen them fill out much yet, but I also was speculating that Nike and Apple would partner with them at some point. So, those were two that I had thought might we might see something with. And I I've heard not rumors of those two brands, but I've heard that there is other things coming for Cadillac.

I think for them, it's going to be a matter of can they perform on track and how is that going to look? Uh, you obviously don't want to be absolutely

Cadillac has a Honda power unit.

Ferrari.

Oh,

are you East Coast?

Yes.

11 p.m. Saturday.

11 p.m.

11 p.m. 11 p.m.

Pretty convenient for the West Coast folks. 8:00 p.m. is like sort of a great time to hang out, watch the race.

Uh, works out for us.

I've been doing this since I was a kid, though, so it was like

these races have always been weird times. I'm you just kind of get used to it.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

That's why when I hear people complain, I'm like

pageantry.

It's part of the pageantry.

Exactly. Well, thank you so much.

Yeah. I I'm going to think about the brands though, John, and may maybe I'll come back when I come up with some

Yeah.

some that could could join in. It's

short list.

Yeah. I'm focused elsewhere now with the beginning of the year, but

Yeah, of course. Well, thank you so much for taking time.

Yeah. Excited to see your coverage. Yeah. Uh on the event and uh yeah, we'll talk soon. Great to see. Thanks for having me again, guys.

Have a good one. Good to

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